EPIC Blog Post

Ok, so I wrote all this up last Wednesday and have been waiting to get pictures before I post it, but here it all is! From July 1st to July 8th, so pretty much the first week and a half here. Since then we've had a blast exploring Copenhagen by train, bus, and canal boat, heading to Norway for the weekend, and having an epic celebration of Alex's 22nd Birthday!  I posted some of the pictures on Instagram. I think I double the amount of pictures I have on there. There are now around 10. Here is a picture from the Church of Our Lady that I wanted to put on. 

Tuesday - July 1st 

On Tuesday for Danish class we learned the names of parts of the body and how to say it hurts somewhere. So our teacher sent us to a pharmacy and had us find and take pictures of medicine for a cold, stomach ache, headache, and a hangover. 

After class we headed to McDonalds where we used the free wifi to do our homework. 

Tuesday nights Nate and Jill make dinner for all of the students. This week Jill make frikkadelles- a super-typical danish food that’s like sausages with carrots and potatoes and this really creamy sauce poured over all of it. That was a lot of fun- and we were full for almost the first time since we got here. Everything is so expensive here, even the food, so we’ve been too scared to buy too much. I’m sure we’ll get over that soon. But Jill made enough food for twice as many people as were there so we ate up! In fact, there was so much that we all had it for lunch the next day.  

Tuesday was the night of the USA-Belgium game which started here at 10:00 PM. The rest of the group went to watch it at the big screen in the harbor, but we live so far away that with the train schedule we wouldn’t get home until around 3:00 AM so we just went home to watch it. Everyone made fun of us for being the old married couple that didn’t want to stay out late, which was funny. We were ok with it. But our plan backfired! We just barely missed our train home and ended up waiting at different stations for nearly 21/2 hours! While we waited we ate most of the candy we had bought for the game. We peddled fast to get home, but we still missed the first half of the game. After the sad ending, we were really glad not to have the long ride home. Yay for being the boring married couple!

Wednesday - July 2nd

It was definitely tough to wake up Wednesday morning and I think everyone except Alex fell asleep during Danish class. After lunch Alex and I walked around the Copenhagen Temple. It was a dream come true! For our cultural class we went to Rosenborg Castle- It’s a smaller castle, but it has a moat! The coolest thing about the castle was the king’s throne. When he got it, the king told everyone that it was made out of unicorn horns! Really it was narwhale tusks, which were unique to Denmark so the king could pull that off. It looked way cool though! The treasury was way crazy. It’s where they keep all of the crown jewels and everything.

When we got home Alex realised that the key to his bike had fallen out on the way! Here you just lock the bikes so they won’t work or anything and you can just leave them places without chaining them to anything. Thankfully he was able to go back and find the key on the ground where we had stopped to take a picture. That was a big relief.

We got in and Steen and Sara (one of their daughters) were fixing up strawberries they had just picked for a yummy dessert for everyone. Me and Alex went up for a nap at around 7 and slept until 12:30 AM! Then we just kept sleeping until morning. It was super nice to finally sleep, but we were sad we missed the dessert!  

Here is where we lost (and found!) the bike key. Was the picture worth it?? Haha here are some other pictures from riding our bikes. 

Thursday - July 3rd

On Thursday we found the mission office. A senior sister missionary that we met in the pizza place told us that an elderly Elder can get us into part of Tivoli for free! So we went there and chatted with all of the senior missionaries and set it all up for next Tuesday. When we went back to the institute we decided to be brave and take the elevator. The elevator is scary because when you touch the walls it stops moving and no one knew the real sequence of buttons to push to get it started again. Right before we made it to the 3rd floor I just got really curious so I touched the wall and sure enough it stopped! We just started pushing all the buttons and somehow got it working again after a few minutes. 

When we made it into the institute we saw the old mission president and stake president in there cleaning. He was the Stake President when the Copenhagen Temple was announced, built, and dedicated so he had some really neat comments about what that was like and what it was like to work with President Hinckley so much when he came to dedicate the temple. He told us the importance of the temple and to always keep it right in the center of our marriage and family. It was way cool talking to him!

We went home and somehow started talking with Beth and Steen about family history and pulled up our lines that go through Denmark. They sat there with us for like an hour looking at the places and telling us how we could get there to visit and just being so nice!

Friday - July 4th

On Friday we didn’t have class!!!!! So we slept in until 11:00 :) I’ve decided that we are binge sleepers. For breakfast we made pancakes from a pancake mix that we bought. After mixing it up it looked watery for pancakes, but Beth said it’s normal because the pancakes are more like crepes. After mixing it up it hit me that of course! These are Danish Pancakes! At my house we’d call them Danish or Swedish pancakes. It’s always been my favorite food ever and every year we have it on my and Ash’s birthday. And there me and Alex were having real Danish Pancakes in Denmark! And they were pretty much the same as the ones back home!

We didn’t go into Copenhagen, but we took a nice bike ride through the fields and to a cute little church. We walked through the cemetery and found Knudsens, Madsens, and Bertelsens! We’re probably not related, but it was still fun to see some familiar names. 

Saturday - July 5th

Saturday we slept in again until like 10, then Beth drove us to the beach in Roskilde, the town by where we are staying. It was the beach of a fjord, which is cool, but it wasn’t what we were expecting.  It was like a grassy park with 3 feet of sand around the shore. It was sure nice though! And mostly everyone had their clothes on so that was nice too. When Beth drove us into town she was pretty vague on how we could get back, I don’t think she knew really, and we were afraid to ask because we just wanted to go. But we were really lucky! The right bus stop happened to be just a little ways out from the beach and we got the train right to our stop. Then we were stuck because usually when we go into town we leave our bikes at the station, but Beth drove us there so now we had no bikes to bike home on. Beth said to text her if we needed a ride, but we need internet to text so that was out. So we were on our way to ask a store clerk to lend us their phone when we ran into Beth as she was walking out of the store with her daughter Ema! How lucky is that!? 

We went home and played with Noah and Cody (Noah is the 3-year-old and Cody is the dog). Noah is finally warming up to us! He is so cute. He doesn’t speak English, but he just chatters on anyways. I think his greatest role model in life is Cody. 

The Petersens made a little sign for our shelf in the pantry! A sure sign of acceptance! And super nice :)

Sunday - July 6th 

Sunday was crazy with all the people we met! There was an American family where the son went to Woods Cross and played Jr. Jazz with Alex’s little brother Adam and the daughter was a Student Body Officer at Bountiful so she knew Alex’s sister Maddie! Aaand the mom and the daughter both met Erica on the metro in Italy while she was a missionary and talked to her about studying vocal performance at the U! Small world…

The Petersens made a wonderful Sunday Dinner and invited our professor and his family because they’ve been friends for a long time. We had tons of lasagna and saft and homemade cookies and it was delicious!

After dinner we went to a fireside with Brad Wilcox! He was here for Efy and stayed to give a fireside. It was cool. At the fireside we met some missionaries who let us have a Book of Mormon in Danish! It might be to give away, but I told them I’d probably just keep it. Also at the fireside we met another person who knew Alex’s family! A sister missionary from Norway who knew Alex’s brother Michael. She actually flew to Utah for his wedding and stayed at their house! 

What’s really been fun is playing with Noah. He followed Cody into our room last night and crawled around a bit imitating Cody. The next night he gave me a hug goodnight and Millae (a daughter) translated that Noah says Alex and me are his best friends. Oh we love that little boy!

Monday - July 7th

I’m almost caught up! Monday went by super fast. Class went by fast, then we went to tour the Royal Residency and the Marble Church. The church was fun. We caught a tour and climbed this tiny staircase for at least 10 minutes and went all the way to the top of the dome of the church. It was a rainy day, but there was a beautiful view of Copenhagen and the harbour! 

If only we could tour like these guys! #travelinstyle #herecomesthesegwaybrigade

Here are some pictures of the church and the view. 

After the church, Alex and I had pølse. They are HUGE hot-dogs in a crazy bun with all this fun sauce. They sell them everywhere on the streets here. We took a walk down Nyhavn where all these fun coloured houses are and bought the biggest most delicious soft-serve ice cream I’ve ever had! They are known for their soft-serve here and call it “soft-is”, “soft ice.” It was sooo good and soooo creamy. 

Tuesday - July 8th

Yesterday we went to Tivoli! Tivoli is Denmark’s big theme park, but it was originally lots of gardens. Because we found some connections at the mission office, a Senior Missionary got us in to the gardens free. We just went to Disneyland a few weeks ago so we were fine not riding the rides here. The gardens were very pretty. Yesterday was so terribly hot and humid though! So we went down to the basement of the concert hall to see their little aquarium. We recharged in the air conditioning while we watched all the fish. There was an octopus there too and it kept moving around its tank! I can’t remember seeing an octopus move before, but it was kind of creepy how wiggly all of his legs were at once. 

For anyone who caught the Germany-Brazil game last night you know what a crazy blow-out that was! Now the games are all broadcast at 10:00 PM here so it is just so late, but we’ve been so faithful at watching the World Cup so far that we have to finish it! Tonight should be a good game. I don’t know if my parents can watch it on the mission, but I’m sure they'll be hearing all about it. Since the US is out we are cheering for Argentina now. Go Albiceleste!

Flashback to July 1st 2014....

Monday was amazing!! It was our first day of Danish class, which was fun and overwhelming at the same time. We meet in the YSA Institute. Our teacher’s name is Dane.He is from Utah, but his mom is Danish and he served his mission here and he married a girl from Sweden so he’s pretty Scandinavian. 

The class is a lot like the MTC, except Dane speaks even less English during class. I am glad that we already have gone through learning a language. I think it makes the class a lot easier than it would be. It's still pretty tough, but not as bad as it could be!

After class we went to this pizza place that Dane recommended and it was soooo good! It was really funny too because it was an Italian pizza place, but the chef was from Nepal and talked to us in English while we were all in Denmark! Later we found out there is another guy who works there who actually is Italian so they are still legit. 

Our first cultural class was awesome! Our professor’s name is Nate and he is here with his wife and 5 boys. His goal is to show us cool things, but make us think about what makes them cool. So for our first trip he said he was going to take us to something we had seen a lot, but not in this setting. And he took us to the Cristus! The real one in the Church of Our Lady with the statues of the 12 Apostles. It was so neat to see it there. The marble wasn’t what I expected, it wasn’t white. The statue seemed so alive! The biggest difference we noticed was that his leg is much more obvious about taking a step forward and his toes are all set so it looks like he is about to walk right off the pedestal. 

It was beautiful and humbling to see Christ and the Apostles so magnificently portrayed. Each apostle was holding something symbolic to himself. Peter definitely had a big set of keys! If you haven’t heard the sweet story about that, look up President Kimball’s story about when he visited there. I think Pres. Packer told it recently.  The whole church was just amazing! They have organ concerts there on Saturdays. Hopefully we can make it to one!

Before we headed for home we had our first authentic Danish Pastry. It was really good and super rich! This was called a Kartoffelkage. Just think of it as a cream puff with marzipan and chocolate powder on top. 

Still loving it in Denmark

Hey Everyone! We are still alive and loving Denmark! This has been an awesome week with a ton of homework and a ton of awesome new experiences! We just finished our first test and are done with homework for the weekend. Yay! I've been writing posts on the train, but I haven't gotten around to finishing them so I'll get those out now.

Our test today was for our Danish class. It is amazing how much we've learned in just 2 weeks! I feel great about it. It's pretty fun. Yesterday we learned how to order food at a restaurant and conversation phrases you can use during a meal, so we took the bus to a bakery and ordered our food all in Danish. It was way neat! Our last trip with the cultural class was to the national museum. Just getting through the pre-history section took like an hour and a half. The coolest part was learning about the Vikings and everything from that time. It was very interesting! It wasn't as epic as I expected, but it was still neat.

Now it's time to get ready for our cruise to Norway! Yay!

Church in Roskilde

I ended up flaking out and wearing jeans to bike. Maria did too so she could show us the way so I figured it was ok. Another beautiful ride! Me and Alex can't get over how pretty the landscape is! A train and a bus later we arrived at the church house. The ward has 150 members. There are enough young people to have a whole YSA Sunday School class! It seems like a great ward. The members seem educated, nice, and solid in the gospel. The talks were great! And yes, we did have a translator.

We learned more about how the gospel lets you face the storms of life and find some positive part. When you can have an eternal perspective, the troubles just seem smaller. That's the secret!

 Another woman shared that she has overcome fear in her life with 1. Humor 2. Time 3. Faith 4. Love 5.Vision

The talks were all about eternal families and they all talked about being sealed in the temple so it was so fun to listen to!

We made it back to the train station and waited with all of the crazy people that are coming in for the Roskilde Festival. That's a huge music festival which is happening close to where we live. It'll be like a week long and the Rolling Stones are coming along with a bunch of other groups. There was a group of people at the station dressed up as Waldo from "Where's Waldo?" Too bad we didn't get a picture!

This afternoon has been pretty relaxed. We are super excited for class tomorrow! Hope everyone has had a great Sunday!

First Weekend in Denmark

We're in Denmark! After a looong trip we finally made it to this cute farmhouse in the middle of the country.

Thankfully the trip wasn't too eventful. There was a problem with my boarding pass that had Alex running all over the airport in Houston, but when he came back to the gate the attendant there fixed it right away. The flight to Amsterdam was long, but we kept busy! We used Alex's phone to play pinochle and Sudoku so we played pinochle, watched a movie, played sudoku, read a bit, played pinochle, looked around the plan, and just had a great time. I even managed to take a break from our fun activities so I could snap this picture as we crossed the Atlantic!

We stopped in Amsterdam and took a picture in the airport. Then we were off to Denmark!

Soon we were in the happiest country in the world! (Alex looks the happiest though. Probably because he finally has leg room!)

At the airport we changed our money for Danish kroner and met with our Professor, Professor Kramer, and the father of the family we're staying with. His name is Steen and his wife's name is Beth. He took us to the grocery store so we could buy some food and so he could pick up some things. He went looking for his stuff and we split off looking for food. After putting together some food for a few meals we felt pretty proud of ourselves until we realized we had lost Steen. We went all over the store twice looking for him just asking ourselves "Where is Steen??" Finally he came in to find us. He had been waiting in his car the whole time! He found us and said "You two are worse than Beth!"

Steen served his mission in Toronto where he met Beth who is Canadian. They have 4 girls named Sara, Mille, Ema, and Maria (ages 10, 13, 16, and 18) and one little boy named Noah who is 3. The girls all speak English and the whole family is a lot of fun! Mille has been playing mine craft since we got here. The craze has spread even to Denmark!

We got to the house and slept from 2-11. Then we got up and hung out with the family while it got dark. We went back to bed at around 3 right as the sun was coming up and slept until noon!

For sleeping through half the day, we still did a ton! Steen showed us the route to bike to the train station where we left our bikes and Beth picked us up in the car and drove us to Roskilde. We went to the store again and they left us in Roskilde to explore. It was a cute little town! There were fun-colored buildings, pretty parks, and small fields. We walked around a huge cathedral and went far enough to see the water. Beth told us later that that was the fjord. While we were walking we discovered the rare Whomping Willow. This one could do some serious damage! (That's me way down by the trunk)

Most things close at three so we bought some yummy Dutch Waffles at the German grocery store and went to the train station. It was here that Alex completed a life long dream. After nearly 22 years of love for trains of all types, this was his first time actually riding one! It was a beautiful moment :)

We rode the train back to Viby Sjaelland and made the scenic ride through the fields back home. In case anyone was worried, the Petersen family are sports fans so we did watch the World Cup Chile vs Brazil game (Sorry Ash and Jamie!)  We had open sandwiches for dinner with tuna mixed with Danish Cavier (not the fancy caviar) and some sort of ranch dressing. We sat around and chatted with the family and finished off the night kicking around a soccer ball with Sara and Noah.

Today we learned how to say thank you, hand, foot, chicken,  trashcan, soccer, and "isn't it cute?" (That last one was when Noah was showing a worm to his mom).

It's been an amazing trip already! I can't wait for church tomorrow! We'll see how I manage the bike in a skirt. Love you all!

The Newlyweds